As far as the payroll, which stands at around $143 million, don't expect the Mets to overshoot that number. There are a number of contracts coming off the books (Pedro Martinez, Moises Alou and Orlando Hernandez) and Wilpon said he has yet to turn down a well-researched plan from Minaya when it comes to jumping into a sweepstakes for a marquee free agent.

Joel Sherman over at the New York Post also pays some consideration to the finances:

Armed with the Wilpons' money, Minaya has been proven a wonderful big-game hunter. He likes stars and - to some extent - his passion for elite players has helped the Mets shuck their insecurity complex in pursuing the best, brightest and most expensive. That is not an unimportant matter when you share a city with the Yankees.

John Harper from the Daily News backs the Mets' decision to stick with Minaya, considering how the season could've gone if the GM did not negotiate with Johan Santana prior to the 2008 campaign:

If not for that good fortune, Minaya may well have signed Livan Hernandez, the Mets may well have gone 80-82 this season and Jeff Wilpon would not have been on a conference call yesterday announcing a three-year contract extension through 2012 for his GM.

"I'm not going to try to guess what the fans are going to think. Obviously when you run a business, you try to use your assets as best you can. I trust Omar and his staff to come to me with what they think is the right plan for the right dollars. We've never really had a firm budget here anyway. Anything Omar has needed, or they've suggested, ownership has always come through. So I don't see that as an issue."

The Journal News reports Omar Minaya is not ruling out the option of trades either. In today's paper, Minaya says:

"We have to be open-minded and think about all areas that at least make our team better, and I mean our team, a unit of 25 better," Minaya said. "If there's a fit that makes us better, I have to at least be open-minded."